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Four employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto have been detained in China for allegedly stealing state secrets, the Shanghai branch of the state security ministry said on Thursday.

A spokesman confirmed an Australian national named Stern Hu and three Chinese citizens were being held, but declined to comment further.

A government news agency, the Xinhua News Agency, also publicly confirmed the arrests on Thursday, but gave no details of the charges against the employees of Rio's Shanghai office.

The Australian government is pressing for access to Hu.

The weekend detentions came amid contentious iron ore price talks between Rio and Chinese steel mills. But there has been no indication whether the case is linked to the negotiations.

China's vague spying and national security laws give authorities wide latitude in deciding what to prosecute. The government treats a sweeping array of economic and other data as state secrets.

The maximum penalty for a conviction on espionage charges under Chinese law is life in prison. A formal arrest in China means an almost automatic conviction.

The Rio employees are accused of "alleged stealing of China's state secrets," Xinhua said, citing state security officials in Shanghai.

The detained Australian, Stern Hu, is the Shanghai-based general manager of Rio's Chinese iron ore business, according to the Australian government. It says the three other detainees are Chinese nationals.

Meanwhile, a Chinese steel executive who had "close contact" with Hu has been detained by Beijing police, the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday.

Tan Yixin, general manager of Shougang International Trade & Engineering Corp, oversaw iron ore purchases, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources. It gave no indication whether the two cases were linked.

Given the fact that this happened after Chinalco lost its bid seems kind of suss

The planned relocation of Tsukiji fish market has emerged as a key point of contention between the ruling and opposition parties in campaigning for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on Sunday.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which supports the relocation plan, has criticized the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, saying the DPJ's opposition to the relocation "is irresponsible as it hasn't put forward a counterproposal."

After the metropolitan government decided to relocate the market to the Toyosu district of Koto Ward, the 374,000-square-meter proposed relocation site was found to contain unsafe levels of toxic materials--including benzene at a level 43,000 times higher than environmental safety standards allow.

Insisting that no other sites of a suitable size are available, the Tokyo government decided to clean up the site by replacing the soil to a depth of two meters and removing hazardous substances from earth even further down.

The new market is slated to open at the end of 2014.

On Tuesday, which marked the mid-point of the official campaigning period, the LDP began distributing leaflets throughout Tokyo, saying the current "market's facilities are old, and business operations there are set to reach a critical limit."

A senior member of the LDP's Tokyo chapter said the leaflet reflected the party's determination "not to shirk the important issues the Tokyo government is facing" by rejecting the DPJ's position on the relocation plan.

The DPJ has expressed its opposition to the relocation in its manifesto for the Tokyo election, insisting that "the safety of the planned site has yet to be ensured."

DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama chose to make his first election campaign speech of the official campaign period at Tsukiji market last Friday, telling the crowd, "Why should we relocate the market?"

With regard to other major parties in the Tokyo assembly, LDP coalition partner New Komeito has expressed support for the relocation plan.

The opponents include the Japanese Communist Party and Tokyo Seikatsusha Network (NET), a small political party, which insists the market facilities should be rebuilt instead of relocating them.

However, two LDP candidates running in the Koto Ward constituency have expressed concern over the relocation plan, saying they could not back the relocation plan "until the site has been confirmed safe."

Tsukiji market workers are closely following the political parties' arguments.

Hiroyuki Ito, 70, chairman of the board of directors of the Wholesale Cooperative of Tokyo Fish Market based in the Tsukiji district, said, "We have to accept the relocation plan as a previous plan to rebuild [at the current site] was aborted."

Ito urged the Tokyo government to ensure thorough measures are taken to clean up the relocation site.

Chizuru Imai, 57, an executive of a wholesale firm, expressed concern about the pollution at the proposed relocation site, saying: "What if fish [stored at the new market] are contaminated? Food safety must come first."

In Toyosu, where the relocation site is located, there are many high-rise apartment buildings that have a large number of new residents.

Locals have expressed mixed feelings about the relocation of the fish market. While a 22-year-old university student said he welcomed the relocation, a 45-year-old woman whose son is a second-grade primary school student, said she was concerned about it. "I'm afraid traffic will increase when big trucks drive to and from the new market, leading to more traffic accidents."

According to a recent poll of Tokyo assembly election candidates carried out by The Yomiuri Shimbun before the election date was officially announced, 113 of the 204 respondents surveyed opposed the relocation plan, including DPJ, JCP and NET candidates. No candidates from the LDP and New Komeito opposed it. Eighty-three candidates supported the plan, including two from the DPJ.

(Jul. 10, 2009)

Last edited by Shadow Kira01; 2009-07-10 at 06:45.
Reason: replaced with better topic.

Actually, the latest reports states that the attacks came from 16 different nations as opposed to North Korea alone. In other words, the attackers may not be North Koreans but are working for the interest of North Korea in this case.

Distributed denial-of-service attacks like these use worldwide networks of computers that have been compromised though the installation of malware. Just because a computer with an IP in Malta was the origin of some of the attack packets tells you nothing about where the order to attack originated from. It's not like the DPRK enlisted people in 16 different nations to work on their behalf. It's more likely that they took advantage of an existing botnet to carry this out. Botnet operators can often command tens of thousands of computers across the globe and lease access to their networks to make money.

By the way, how often do you hear the words "Microsoft Windows" mentioned in stories about malware and DDOS attacks? Most stories I read sound like being "pwned" by hackers is just an ordinary part of computing, and not something for which the designers of the software or operating system platform have any responsibility. Anyone with experience in these matters knows full well that Windows was especially vulnerable to attack compared to other platforms. Yet we only hear about "computers" not "computers running Windows" in stories about botnets. I wonder why?

Edit: This story in todays Washington Post suggests that the worm will delete all files on the hard drives of the infected machines in the next few days. This is quite surprising since the intent of most malware these days is to hide itself from the computer's owner so it can avoid removal. I notice that the WP writer does mention Windows was involved, but this is an article in the "techy" area of the paper. Most general news reports about these attacks don't mention Windows at all.

That's because the reporters have to have a clue to report on technical issues... if you subscribe to the SANS reports or related Storm Center news --- the specifically targeted OSs are always discussed. Way too much of the population simply has no idea that operating systems matter in terms of security (or even grasp that there's more than one choice at all).

A compound found in the soil of the remote Easter Island in the South Pacific could lead to an "elixir of life", according to scientists.

Easter Island's 'secret of eternal youth' .The anti-fungal agent rapamycin, produced by soil bacteria, is believed by scientists to have extraordinary life-extending properties which could result in genuine "anti-ageing" pill that keeps people young.

Rapamycin, first discovered in the 1970s in soil samples from the island, famous for its monoliths, is currently used as an immunosuppressor to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.

But US researchers found it increased the life expectancy of ageing male mice by 28 per cent and female ones by 38 per cent. In human terms, this was equivalent to the extra lease of life expected if both cancer and heart disease were prevented or cured.

Dr Arlan Richardson, director of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Ageing Studies in Texas, where much of the work was carried out, said: "I've been in ageing research for 35 years and there have been many so-called 'anti-ageing' interventions over those years that were never successful.

"I never thought we would find an anti-ageing pill for people in my lifetime; however, rapamycin shows a great deal of promise to do just that."

The mice were 20 months old - or 60 in human years - when given the compound which blocks activity of an enzyme called TOR which regulates cell metabolism, cell growth and protein manufacture in response to environmental cues.

But other experts warned that the immunosuppressive effects of rapamycin could be dangerous, and no-one should consider taking the drug to slow ageing.

Dr Lynne Cox, an expert on ageing at Oxford University, said: "This is a very exciting study where a single drug with a known cellular effect increases the life expectancy and lifespan of mice.

"It is especially interesting that the drug was effective even when given to older mice - equivalent to 60-year-old humans - as it would be much better to treat ageing in older people rather than using drugs long term through life.

"In no way should anyone consider using this particular drug to try to extend their own lifespan as rapamycin suppresses immunity. While the lab mice were protected from infection, that's simply impossible in the human population.

"What the study does is to highlight an important molecular pathway that new, more specific drugs might be designed to work on. Whether it's a sensible thing to try to increase lifespan this way is another matter: perhaps increasing health span rather than overall lifespan might be a better goal."

I'm a Japanese. I live in Shibuya. And, boy, that's the worst thing I've heard. Any renewal of TsukijiTrulili should be at its own original location, not moving it away. Tsukiji has become a icon of central Tokyo... I don't see why it needs to move all the way to Toyosu. And the current location is more strategic than Toyosu if I'm correctly informed.

“A mobile is far handier than a computer for Internet access -- I seldom use a PC outside the office,” said Tokyo travel agent Takeshi, 32, who declined to give his surname.

Takeshi and other pornography fans are feeding a surge in demand for movie downloads in Japan, home to the world’s first third-generation wireless network. While profiting from the traffic, Tokyo-based mobile carriers DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. say they’ve been forced to impose limits on the heaviest users as the $74 billion network feels the strain.

“When you have unlimited data, you’re going to have an issue with capacity -- it’s an issue that’s been waiting to happen,” said Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research Ltd. “It wouldn’t surprise me that it happens in Japan first because they’ve had 3G for so much longer.”

Softbank Corp., the third-largest network and the Japanese operator of Apple Inc.’s iPhone service, said it is also considering restrictions on users with unlimited data plans.

While telecommunications companies say privacy laws prevent them from seeing what customers download, Japan’s top two pornography providers, Hokuto and Soft on Demand Co., said sales to mobile phone users are driving revenue growth.

Growing Traffic

“Pornography will eventually open a debate about how carriers should modify their business model as data traffic swells,” said Yusuke Tsunoda, a telecommunications analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. “It may prompt even tighter access restrictions.”

Japan rolled out so-called third-generation, high-speed mobile services in 2001, two years before the U.S. Now, more than 91 million Japanese surf the Internet by mobile phone, downloading movies, games and music, according to the Tokyo- based Telecommunications Carriers Association. Juniper estimates Internet usage over phones in Japan is three times the level in the U.S.

The problems Japanese carriers face may spread as consumers demand more movies, music and other data-intensive downloads, including growing access to sites with adult content, said U.K.- based Juniper.

Pornography Boom

Global revenue from pornography on mobile devices will more than double to $4.9 billion in the five years to 2013, while music sales will grow by about a third, said Juniper, which provides global research on the telecommunication industry and includes Finland’s Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, Apple and Microsoft Corp. among its clients.

“We can’t see customers’ data but can surmise the biggest portion of it is probably movies,” said KDDI spokesman Keiichi Sakurai. “We can’t deny the possibility those movies include adult content.”

Customers have complained about stoppages or slow Web access, mainly around midnight when traffic from “heavy users” spikes, Sakurai said. Japanese carriers spent $74 billion building their networks since 2000, based on data provided by Wireless Intelligence, a London-based researcher.

Japan has more than 1,000 companies producing adult-content movies, generating about 17,000 titles last year, said Tim Smith, who’s worked in Japan’s telecommunications industry since 1999 and is chief executive officer of 3G service company Sairis Group KK.

‘Big Earner’

Smith says the largest Japanese adult content Internet sites have as many as 1,000 new customers a day, each paying as much as 10,000 yen as a sign-up fee.

While music downloads are the “official big earner” in Japanese mobile commerce, more money is made through porn, dating sites and even fortune-telling services, said Smith, whose company has helped run promotions in Japan for Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Studios, Toshiba Corp. and MasterCard Inc.

Revenue at Soft On Demand’s mobile site, which offers free movie samples and DVD sales, surged 40 percent in the year to March 2009 and now totals about 15 million yen a month, said Hirotaka Ishimori, head of the company’s online division.

“We see the mobile phone as potentially a huge market,” Ishimori said. “Fixed-rate data plans, faster Internet access and sophisticated handsets are contributing to that growth.” Ishimori estimates total annual sales in Japan’s pornography market are about 100 billion yen.

‘Relatively Untouched’

The unlisted, Tokyo-based porn producer had 14.7 billion yen in sales for the year ended March 2008, according to company researcher Teikoku Data Bank Ltd. Revenue at market leader Hokuto is more than twice as much, Teikoku Data estimated.

“Our mobile business is growing steadily,” said Hiroshi Tojo, head of mobile sales at Tokyo-based Digital Media Mart, which operates the online outlet for Hokuto. The mobile porn market is “still relatively untouched.”

Hokuto’s Web site offers 2-minute video clips for phone users for as little as 100 yen and sells full-length movies for DoCoMo subscribers.

“Whenever there is a new distribution method for adult content, adult content will go that medium,” said Holden at Juniper Research. “It’s gone that way since cavemen drew adult pictures in the cave.”

Household energy bills will rise by more than £200 a year under the Government’s low-carbon strategy being announced next week.

Meeting Britain’s targets for cutting emissions could push another 1.7 million households into fuel poverty, meaning that seven million homes would be spending more than 10 per cent of their income on fuel.

The Renewable Energy Strategy, to be published on Wednesday, will state that more than £100 billion will have to be invested in renewable energy infrastructure, including 7,000 wind turbines, by 2020.

The Government has bound itself legally to cutting CO2 emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. To achieve this, it must increase the amount of energy generated from renewable sources from 2 per cent at present to 15 per cent by 2020.

The strategy estimates that energy bills will have to rise by about 20 per cent to pay for the investment. The average household currently pays about £1,150 a year for electricity and gas, a small decline on last year but still double the amount paid in 2003.

The cost of converting to renewable energy and modernising Britain’s power supply would add about £230 to annual bills. Costs are likely to ratchet up quickly as the investment is made, with the increase reaching 20 per cent within three years.

Look on the bright side. It helps improve mobile phone technology and bandwidth access at a faster rate.

No wonder Japan is pretty famous for its high tech cities.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke last August, was also found to have “life-threatening” pancreatic cancer around the same time, a South Korean cable television network reported on Monday.

The network, YTN, a cable news channel, quoted unidentified Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources for the report, which was made by YTN’s Beijing-based correspondent.

YTN did not explain how the sources obtained such medical information about Mr. Kim from North Korea, an isolated, nuclear-armed state that historically has kept details of its leader’s health a closely guarded secret.

But if the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is true, Mr. Kim may not have much longer to live. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to detect early, it spreads rapidly and the fatality rate is high. The World Health Organization says fewer than 5 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer live longer than five years.

Considering that the information regarding the North Korean leader's lifespan isn't precisely accurate, it is best to ignore it as that it may turn out to be one of their tactics of diversion. It is possible for North Korea to be spreading false information to test the waters on the issue of selecting a successor, as well as how they will be dealing with future issues over their nuclear and missile aggression.

Considering that the information regarding the North Korean leader's lifespan isn't precisely accurate, it is best to ignore it as that it may turn out to be one of their tactics of diversion. It is possible for North Korea to be spreading false information to test the waters on the issue of selecting a successor, as well as how they will be dealing with future issues over their nuclear and missile aggression.

I saw a recent video of Kim Jong Il the other day. He was having trouble walking, looked very thin, and one side of his face was drooping. His appereance was consistant with someone who recently had a stroke and has something else wrong with him. My first thought on seeing it was, "yup that guy had a stroke." My second thought was, "looks like something else is wrong too, or he's really starting to show his age." Then I see this report about cancer. I'd certainly believe it.

I saw a recent video of Kim Jong Il the other day. He was having trouble walking, looked very thin, and one side of his face was drooping. His appereance was consistant with someone who recently had a stroke and has something else wrong with him. My first thought on seeing it was, "yup that guy had a stroke." My second thought was, "looks like something else is wrong too, or he's really starting to show his age." Then I see this report about cancer. I'd certainly believe it.

Is that true?

In that case, there is no doubt that guy has cancer and stroke.

I wonder what will happen if he dies before having a successor.. The prime minister Taro Aso says that if he dies suddenly, things can only get worse but I don't know how credible is that..

I wonder what will happen if he dies before having a successor.. The prime minister Taro Aso says that if he dies suddenly, things can only get worse but I don't know how credible is that..

1. There is a successor. Kim Jong Un, the "Brilliant Comrade".
2. The situation WILL get worse. Because if he dies suddenly, there will be a leadership vaccuum, and the military will try to usurp power, leading to the Indian Chiefs situation where there are many leaders fighting for that one post. And they'll likely all be loonies worse than Kim Jong Il, since they'rre more interested in the leadership post that the nation.

1. There is a successor. Kim Jong Un, the "Brilliant Comrade".
2. The situation WILL get worse. Because if he dies suddenly, there will be a leadership vaccuum, and the military will try to usurp power, leading to the Indian Chiefs situation where there are many leaders fighting for that one post. And they'll likely all be loonies worse than Kim Jong Il, since they'rre more interested in the leadership post that the nation.

The fragmentation of the military might be a good chance for the Coalition to put an end to the tyranny, but US is too tied up and militarily weak after getting involved with religious fanatics and 82% deficit. If it does, it will definitely spill over to South Korea, which is not a good thing at all.

It would be good if China or Russia stepped in to help clean up the mess*.

* - You know how they clean up messes like these. See the Chechen Conflict and Afghanistan in the 1970s-1980s, and Tiananmen & Sino-Vietnamese War in 1980s.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

STRASBOURG — The job brings no real power and no extra pay. But the election Tuesday of a new president of the European Parliament was a significant moment for the 27-nation European Union, and certainly for Poland.

Jerzy Buzek, a former center-right prime minister of Poland, was elected president of the assembly with 555 votes out of 713 votes cast, becoming the first politician from an East European country to hold one of the bloc’s big posts.

Never mind that the position is largely ceremonial. It carries prestige, a few perks and a lot of symbolism, and Warsaw wanted it badly.

The vote Tuesday was the culmination of months of lobbying by the Polish government, which wants to silence those who argue that the former communist nations are underrepresented in Europe’s decision making.

Before the vote, Eugeniusz Smolar, senior fellow of the Center for International Relations, a research institute in Warsaw, said that the election of Mr. Buzek would “be symbolic to many people in Central and Eastern Europe of an evenhanded — and that the old-boy network ceases to be in place.”

Poland’s minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, said that “the fact that Buzek can become the president of the European Parliament is proof that enlargement of the E.U. has been a resounding success.”

Even some political opponents agree, and deputies from the Green Party had promised to back Mr. Buzek, not because they agree with his center-right politics, but to send an upbeat political signal.

Right now, the European Parliament needs some good publicity. Although it has grown in power in recent decades, turnout for elections to the assembly has declined in every vote since it was first directly elected in 1979, reaching a low of 43 percent last month.

As president, Mr. Buzek will chair parliamentary sessions. The job also involves representing the Parliament at summit meetings of E.U. leaders and international events. All official travel is paid for, and the president has the V.I.P. trappings of an international leader. The president also has a cabinet, which totals 39 members, including support staff and advisers.

1. There is a successor. Kim Jong Un, the "Brilliant Comrade".
2. The situation WILL get worse. Because if he dies suddenly, there will be a leadership vaccuum, and the military will try to usurp power, leading to the Indian Chiefs situation where there are many leaders fighting for that one post. And they'll likely all be loonies worse than Kim Jong Il, since they'rre more interested in the leadership post that the nation.

If they're fighting for control of North Korea, I'd bet one of them will be willing to sell his nation out for foreign support to help consolidate his power. Better to be leader of a puppet nation than executed as a traitor when someone else seizes power after all. Though I'd expect a relatively peaceful transition. North Korea didn't break out in civil war when Kim Jong Il took over after his father died.

1. There is a successor. Kim Jong Un, the "Brilliant Comrade".
2. The situation WILL get worse. Because if he dies suddenly, there will be a leadership vaccuum, and the military will try to usurp power, leading to the Indian Chiefs situation where there are many leaders fighting for that one post. And they'll likely all be loonies worse than Kim Jong Il, since they'rre more interested in the leadership post that the nation.

A leadership vacuum may not be a bad thing as that some of these military commanders may decide that denuclearizing for the sake for the civilians while receiving foreign aid isn't so bad after all rather than unreasonably firing all their weaponry arsenal at enemy nations while getting their own turned into barren lands. However, I am assuming that their military commanders are somewhat intelligent as opposed to the foolish Kim Jong-Il.

If North Korea launches a military offensive, some cities and people in Japan and possibly some parts of South Korea and maybe Hawaii will die and be destroyed as a result. However, the legitimate counter-offensive that comes afterwards will ensure the disappearance of North Korea off the world map. Its not all that beneficial to them if their core objective is to unite with South Korea and absorb their economy while providing South Korea as possible living locations for their own civilians who are in poverty and famine. More importantly, all they got to do is denuclearize, release a few abductees who are most likely not all that important to their nation, they will receive foreign aid and the removal of all sanctions. I don't see why Kim Jong-Il can get it through to the thick skull of his. North Korea is currently picking a death route instead of the winning one, for what purpose?

The fragmentation of the military might be a good chance for the Coalition to put an end to the tyranny, but US is too tied up and militarily weak after getting involved with religious fanatics and 82% deficit. If it does, it will definitely spill over to South Korea, which is not a good thing at all.

It would be good if China or Russia stepped in to help clean up the mess*.

* - You know how they clean up messes like these. See the Chechen Conflict and Afghanistan in the 1970s-1980s, and Tiananmen & Sino-Vietnamese War in 1980s.

Russia won't actively do anything. There is no value for them in taking over North Korea, and they're not at all ideologically similar. Europe is their main soft-power priority. Russia will more likely be a side effect added in after anything drastic happens, because selling gas to an empty (?) market of 22 million people would be laughably profitable.

China's in a weird position. If they do anything militarily, the world will go crazy. The best they can do is threaten the military to keep the status quo (i.e. just prop the son up and go to bed).

Does anyone know if Japan and South Korea have any visible cooperation when it comes to North Korea, seeing as they're in the deepest crap if things get out of control?